If your usual pattern is hard or infrequent, this protocol needs a little more care. Loopa asks about it when you enrol, and adjusts what it shows you.
Most of the research on low FODMAP has been done in people whose main problems are pain, bloating and looser stools. A real-world evaluation of more than twenty-one thousand app users found improvement in pain, bloating, wind and diarrhoea, alongside a small increase in constipation (Rej A et al., 2023 · PMID 37375587).
Why it happens
Several of the foods that come out during restriction are among the bigger fibre contributors in an ordinary diet: wheat, rye, pulses, and a number of fruits. Take them out without replacing what they were doing and total fibre falls.
What Loopa does about it
If you tell us at enrolment that your usual pattern is mostly hard or infrequent, then through the restriction phase Loopa:
- surfaces fibre and fluid guidance on the protocol home
- weights meal suggestions towards low-FODMAP sources of soluble fibre
- passes that to the AI coach so its suggestions lean the same way
You can change your answer at any time.
Low-FODMAP fibre that fits
Oats, chia, ground linseed, quinoa, brown rice, oranges, kiwifruit, strawberries, carrot, courgette and potatoes with the skin on all fit inside restriction at ordinary servings. Fluids matter as much as the fibre does.
When to stop and ask
Constipation that gets worse, or does not settle, is worth raising with a clinician rather than working around. The protocol has an end date for good reasons, and this is one of them.
See also: The three phases
